News Buffet..........

Lots of news to report on today,so lets get started!

Last night Battlin Bob and I attended the season ending party for the Hagerstown Suns season ticket holders at Tony's Italian Restaurant.
Neither the Battler or myself had ever been there and were surprised at the excellent food and the turnout for the event.
Many more people were there than either of us had expected and the Suns front office did an excellent job on things.

A few new notes on the Suns.
One is that they have no word on a new GM to replace Will Smith and the other business note is that season tickets will remain at the same cost for the 2009 season.
Good move to the fellows over at the Muni for that call.
I usually don't get on a soapbox for the Suns,but any of the local readers that see this should at least consider a 25 game package in General Admission.
I know the seats aren't that comfortable,but the cost is reasonable and the team needs the local support.

The Suns organization also announced the beginnings of the Hagerstown Suns Hall of Fame starting next season.
The first class will be limited to four players.
This is a great idea and I cannot put into words how much I love this.
What an terrific thought and here is hoping that perhaps some plaques to honor each inductee can be placed in an area that fans can learn and interact with the history of the franchise.

The Suns hope to have word in the next two weeks or so on the identity of the new general manager.

All and all,the Battler and I enjoyed the evening immensely and without seeming to be too much of an ass kisser,things are beginning to look up over at the Muni.....
Now if we can just get Battlin Bob and his friend Drew Himsworth to have a Martin and Lewis moment-all will be right in the world-LOL!!


The Cleveland Browns suspended tight end Kellen Winslow for this weeks game vs Jacksonville for his comments toward Phil Savage and the Browns for concealing that his hospital stay was due to yet another Cleveland staph infection.
While I think that Winslow went a bit overboard in complaining that Savage never called him during his hospitalization,I do agree that the Browns are sensitive to the staph issue.
This is mainly because it has been such a problem for them through the years.
I would have fined Winslow,but not suspended him because I have seen far worse tirades for sure.
Winslow is appealing the suspension to the league.
This is just another sign that the house of cards that Savage has built is tumbling down......

The Pirates named Joe Kerrigan as their new pitching coach.
Kerrigan had been announcing for the Phillies and was a pitching coach for the Expos,Red Sox and Phillies in the past.
Kerrigan spent four years in the bigs as a pitcher with the Expos and Orioles.
I like this hire,not as much as I would a hire of Leo Mazzone,but not bad at all.

The Pirates also quietly released Flammable Franquelis Osoria.
Goodbye and good luck!

The second of the two Devil free agent signees is out of action as Bobby Holik broke his right pinkie in the Devils win over Washington and will miss 3 to 4 weeks following his surgery to correct the finger.
SO it looks like the same old attack will have to keep the ship afloat until Brian Rolston and Holik can return to action.

The Devils recalled Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond in an interesting decision to replace Holik.
Double L (for obvious reasons) spent an impressive training camp with the Devils and will play left wing on the Holik line with Mike Rupp moving to center.
The Winger likes to fight and could be the heavyweight hitter that Devils fans have wished for since the days of Troy Crowder.
In preseason,Double L fought Donald Brashear and Riley Cote and looked especially impressive in a war vs Cote in Philly.


Could it be a coincidence that LeBlond's NHL debut comes against Dallas and the return to town of a certain little fellow named Sean Avery??
Hmmm..... The Devils-Stars game is tonight at 7 at the Rock...

Battlin Bob will have to look for a new partner when he and I do WTBS Braves baseball impersonations.
As as been noted often,the Battler does a Skip Caray second to none and I usually chip in with a Pete Van Wieren to complete the team.
Van Wieren will be retiring from the Braves after 33 seasons in Atlanta,so the Braves will be looking for new voices for next year.
I have an idea for them-Greg Brown.
Anything to get him out of Pittsburgh!


Finally,a new link on the links page.
The Justice for Kirsty webpage is a page for those that want the Mexican government to do the right thing for the tragic death of English singing star Kirsty Maccoll in 2000.
Kirsty has always been a favorite of mine and I recently found a few import CDs of her work,so I thought I would take advantage of this and add the page to the links.
Kirsty's stuff can be found on Youtube,but rarely in stores as the problems getting many English performers that arent in the mainstream occur with her stuff as well.
She is most well known in the states for writing the 80's hit "they dont know" of Tracey Ullman after releasing it first a few years earlier and for being the female lead in the classic Christmas song by the Pogues,"Fairytale of New York".
Check some of this stuff out!

Photo Credits
Leblond-Cote-NewJerseyDevils.com
Buffet-Unknown